Tahani Al-Rifi's health condition has deteriorated as a result of interruptions to her radiation therapy sessions due to pandemic-related closures.

She tells AFP, "My life has turned for the worse" since the start of the pandemic.

Three years ago, Tahani Al-Rifi, 34, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She began undergoing two sessions of radioactive iodine treatment every month in a government hospital in Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, but treatment stopped six months ago.

"My life has turned for the worse since the start of the Corona outbreak, due to the closure of crossings with Israel and Egypt," she says, adding, "My radiotherapy is not available in Gaza, but only in Hebron."

The first local cases of the virus were discovered in the Gaza Strip last August, in four members of the same family who live in the Maghazi refugee camp.

As part of their measures to limit the spread of the virus, the Israeli Occupation authorities closed the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, which is the only crossing that it used to allow individuals with special permits to pass through. Since that time, the Hebrew state has permitted only the transfer of severe cases of patients for treatment in its hospitals or Palestinian hospitals in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The Israeli Occupation has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip, where nearly two million people live, among whom the poverty rate exceeded 53 percent, for nearly 14 years.

On Monday, Egypt reopened its Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip for four days for humanitarian cases.

The Aid and Hope Cancer Care Program in the Gaza Strip says that there are about 7,000 cancer patients in the Gaza Strip.

According to officials in the sector, hundreds of these people are waiting to be allowed to travel for treatment.

"My treatment trip was delayed for about a year. Blood tests showed negative signs of my condition. I am now living on sedatives after I developed severe pain in the feet and neck," said Al-Rifi, who was wearing a pink muzzle.

From August to Tuesday noon, the Gaza Strip counted about 52,000 cases and 523 deaths.

On Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority began vaccinating people in the West Bank, which would also include the Gaza Strip. The occupied West Bank recorded more than 108,000 cases and 1,325 deaths.

- Less immunity -

Reem Fathy, 18, from Gaza, suffers from leukemia.

"I got several times an Israeli approval to travel for treatment and take doses at Al-Makassed Hospital (in East Jerusalem) because of the severity of my condition," she told AFP.

And she adds, "But I prefer to endure the pain and pain than to travel to Jerusalem and get exposed to Corona infection and die."

According to the director of the Aid and Hope Program for Cancer Care in the Gaza Strip, Eman Shanan, "Cancer patients are the least immune and vulnerable in the face of Covid-19, and they are more entitled to care and prevention."

"During the past year, most of the cancer patients were not able to leave Gaza to receive treatment, except in life-saving cases," Shanan added.

Corona virus is not the only one that has caused a deterioration in the health status of cancer patients in the Gaza Strip.

"The health system is fragile, the Israeli blockade and the closure of crossings, the shortage of medicines and health devices, and the cancer patient in Gaza is the one who pays the price," Shanan said.

"The patient faces two options: either he stays at home and dies, or he leaves his home and risks contracting the virus to receive treatment. Our society is poor, unemployment is high, and sterilizers are not accessible to people," she added.

And Tahani hopes to be able to travel to complete her treatment journey.

"I hope that the Erez crossing will open within the next two months," she says, before adding, "I need 1,800 shekels (about $500) for travel and overnight expenses in Hebron. I will borrow it if I get Israeli permission for treatment."

Her father, Radwan al-Rifi, 70, who has a thick white beard, interrupts her. "We pledged to take care of the medical costs at our own expense so that her travel procedures can be expedited as soon as the crossings are opened."

The father adds, "Her health is intolerable, we will pay all the money necessary so that she does not die."

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Also read: Egypt reopens Rafah crossing for four days